That saves me some time Dean, thanks for posting. I somehow suspect at somepoint I will be trying this out myself just to verify for myself, but it won't be anytime soon, unless Mojo wants to try this out next week when he drops by to check out the new house.

I finally made a new addition to the HT which I had planned to do last year but by the time I got around to it they were out of season and itís not something I feel comfortable ordering over the internet.

The new item is a portable air conditioner for the media room. With all that equipment putting out heat in there it was causing my central air to have to kick on every 5 minutes or so just to keep that one room cool. After firing it up and closing the door the central air was barely running every 30 minutes, big difference so far. Right away I noticed the advantage that sequestered in that room itís much quieter than the central air blower which is in the hallway right off the living room HT so itís already much less distracting.

The problem I ran into last year was that the rest of the house stays very cool since I put up the double cell blinds (dual HT use and energy savings) and the solar reflective film. The blinds alone kept the temperature down significantly. For example my AC is set to bump up from about 80 to 87 at 12:00PM, I leave for work at about 1:15. Before the blinds the temperature would go up from 80 to 87 and the AC would have to kick on about 3 times in just that hour and 15 minutes. After I installed the double cell blinds even in the hottest time of year the temperature only went up to 82 in the same timeframe. I hear they are also effective in holding heat in for those of you in not so warm places.

Iím not sure how good of an investment this will turn out to be especially considering the mixed reviews these types of units get, but Iím operating under the premise that unhappy customers post more reviews than happy ones. Iím hoping I will net some energy savings not having to cool the whole house mostly for one room and save wear and tear on the central air unit. Having a quieter HT is an added bonus I hadnít even considered and have already realized.

I considered a window unit which are much less expensive but I would have to have gotten new screens made for that window, a metal cage to prevent break-ins and possibly deal with the HOA since it would be visible from the front of the house. As it is that window is alarmed so even if I forget the window insert the alarm system will bitch at me to go close the window before arming. Plus this gives me a backup I can wheel into the bedroom should the central air go out and I need to be able to sleep for a couple days until itís fixed.

For when itís cooler outside I just use one of those dual blower window fans to exchange the air with the outside. Which in a little time will no longer be feasible even at night. When itís really mind numbingly cold, you know around 40F outside, I just open the French doors to the living room and heat the house off my HT equipment. For comparison when I lived in the apartment I had to keep the AC on all year around.

The brand name is KUL which the guy a Loweís told was just a renaming of the brand they carried last year, I believe it was Danby but donít quote me on that. Itís 8500 btu which is a little more than I need for that room but it gives me the option of wheeling it to the kitchen when Iím doing my weekly cooking which usually also puts an added strain on my central air because of the heat generated in just that area.

Interestingly I found that the HT curtains greatly restrict the heat transfer from my kitchen to the rest of the house so I will see how using it in there works out on occasion.

There werenít many local options available and since I also get a 10% military discount from Loweís I figured what the hell because I was sick of reading reviews which were pretty much all over the place even for the best rated models. Plus if it doesnít work out I can have 90 days to just take it back to Loweís and get something else.

I havenít played around with it much just set it up and got it running to make sure it worked. Seems to be doing an excellent job so far.

I would have preferred a small window unit since I donít really see moving this thing around much but the cons outweighed the pros for me.

My biggest worry was tripping a breaker since I havenít mapped out the circuits in that area. But I maxed everything out and it seemed fine. At some point Iím going to have to get some rewiring done to accommodate some amps but thatís for later.

WOW! Thank you Dean for all the info on this thread, I just found it because I just upgraded my receiver to an Onkyo TX-NR807 and I want to reconfigure my 7.1 layout (I used to have back surrounds); and what a coincidence I have AXIOM speakers, not as big as yours because I bought them a few years ago on a budget, I have:

Center: VP100Front: M22tiSurround: M3Back: M3

At the time I didn't have enough money to buy surrounds from the QS series or the bigger center channel, but I've been quite happy with them, they sound amazing and my room is not that big so they fit just right.

Anyway, what I want to ask you is if you have to choose would yo go with: front heights, front wides or back surrounds? I can't have all... what do you think?.Thanks again for all the help.

Thanks for the feedback. I see lurkers reading some threads late at night and wonder if they are getting anything out of them.

Which of the three will be the most benefit you depends on the size and layout of your room and what your source material will mainly be, 5.1, 7.1 etc... .

What are your room's dimensions and were is your seating in relation to the screen and the side and rear walls, and how wide is your screen. Also, I'm assuming your planning to use one of your M3 pairs for this or are you going to be getting any of the QS speakers?

IMO if you can lay out your speakers properly you will likely notice the biggest difference using wide speakers. The side surrounds can be moved back a little to simulate rear speakers using the phantom effect. The highs though nice donít come into play as much as the wides and are also better suited as QS style speakers unless you can place them pretty far away and on the front wall in which case direct radiating speakers like the M3 should also work fine.